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After the end of World War II and the start of the Cold War, American occupation forces had allowed the temporary formation of an airborne party from within the ranks of the JGSDF as tensions continued to increase between the United States and the former Soviet Union in 1955. In 1958, the Airborne Brigade's first platoon was formed after Hayao Kinugasa was made the first commander of the unit. It continued to increase in numbers as ranger and free-fall training were added in 1962 and 1969. An additional armed transport unit was established in 1973.

In 1985, the 1st Airborne Brigade was involved in rescue operations of the downed Japan Airlines Flight 123 in the ridges of Mount Takamagahara in Gunma Prefecture, marking the first time that the Brigade was seen in the public eye. Later on, they were also deployed in Yamanashi Prefecture for civil operations and after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995.

A Guide Unit was established on October 20, 1999 and based at Funabashi, Chiba.Preparations to create a new special forces unit went underway in the Brigade in 2000. In 2003, the framework of the Special Operations Group was established as an anti-guerrilla/terrorist unit embedded in the Brigade, but was established and separated from the Brigade in 2004 and placed under the control of the Defense Agency via the JGSDF like most of the JSDF's special forces units.

Kūtei are the early-period elite infantry of Japan, and are specialised towards anti-infantry combat with their weapons: submachine guns, a Type 62L light machine gun, and an M72 LAW. Unlike the later-period Kūtei '90, Kutei are limited to only the UH-1H and KV-107 helicopters as transport options. This limits their mobility and cost efficiency (one unit costs at minimum 40 deployment points), and the KV-107 incurs an availability malus to the unit. The poor performance of their M72 LAW also leaves them vulnerable to vehicles. They are, however, able to compete with more anti-infantry focused units like Spetsnaz or combat engineer units, as their submachine gun has by far the highest accuracy and stabilizer of any SMG-armed unit. That accuracy, coupled with the weapon's devastatingly high rate of fire, makes Kutei units more than a match for any enemy infantry unit.